The medical device field for measurement, analysis, and treatment of the human (and non-human) condition has grown substantially over the past years as the ability to build customized equipment, easily and quickly using specialized chips has enabled both large and small companies to enter the field. Of particular interest has been the use of so-called “biomarkers”, each of which can be defined to represent a specific measurement or series of measurements, representative of a specific condition or function of the human body. Such biomarkers typically relate to a biological condition, state, or function, but not measurements of seemingly unrelated parameters such as blood gases (e.g., pO2, pCO2), pH, electrolytes, temperature, measured bodily electrical signals (e.g., EKG, EEG, EMG), etc.
Substantial quantities of data relating to biomarkers and other parameters regarding the human condition such as blood gases, pH, electrolytes, temperature, electrical signals and the like have been collected for many specific diseases of the body. Also automatic test equipment has been marketed and has been, typically, measurement driven. Equipment is available for measuring pH, oxygen, and temperature at various parts of the body, and various biological measurement schema which are intended to measurement, for example, sugar levels, blood cell counts, the presence of various genes, proteins, acids, etc., and so on are also available. Such equipment is available from many different vendors and provides in many cases, excellent results for the measurement for which they were designed. It is then, typically, up to the doctor or an automated analysis device, which is used by the lab or the doctor and into which selected data is provided, as requested by the doctor, to provide a diagnosis of the patient.
Similar advances are being made in connection with non-human measurement and analysis, as well as in the measurement and analysis of environmental “parameters” (for example, quality of water) in an effort to improve and automate the analysis and resulting diagnosis and conclusions relating to the input data.